When Lance arrived at Moonlight Tower, Amman had just finished the experiment he was working on.
The old wizard seemed to be in an excellent mood when he saw his disciple.
He led Lance to the fourth floor.
Moonlight Tower had six floors, and each served a different purpose.
The first-floor hall housed puppets and various alchemical supplies.
The top floor was an observatory. Many prophecy spells required wizards to study the moon, stars, and other celestial signs before drawing conclusions.
The fifth floor was Amman's primary experimental area.
According to what Lance had heard, the fifth floor had been constructed from the strongest materials in the entire tower. It also possessed a weak anti-magic field capable of dampening part of the force released by spells.
The fourth floor was devoted mainly to Amman's private library.
There were actually two libraries there, one large and one small.
The larger room contained several hundred books, far more than Lance's own private collection. Those books, however, were all written in languages ordinary people could read.
The smaller library was only about two square meters in size.
It contained a single shelf holding a little more than twenty books.
Those twenty-odd books were the true treasures of Amman's collection.
Lance knew that every volume in the small library was extraordinarily valuable to a wizard.
During the past six months, the former Lance had only ever been allowed to study in the larger room.
Apart from the libraries, several unused rooms occupied the rest of the fourth floor. They were available for rest, private study, or other quiet work.
"Lance, to be honest, I was very surprised that you managed to write that rune yourself last night," Amman said.
"But wizards care about results, not excuses for how those results were achieved."
"Since you were able to write the rune, that proves you possess the qualifications to continue on the path of a wizard."
Lance listened respectfully.
"You already understand the importance of the Lesser Meditation rune."
Amman continued, "The next step is straightforward. If you follow the method I teach you, you should be able to become a wizard apprentice within three months."
A Level 1 Wizard was also called a wizard apprentice, a term generally used for wizards who had mastered meditation.
Lance nodded.
"I'll follow your instructions carefully, Teacher."
Amman thought for a moment, then turned and entered the small library.
A short while later, he returned holding a thin booklet.
"Take this and read it first."
He handed the booklet to Lance with obvious care.
"Do not damage it."
"I've already read all of these books, but that doesn't make them any less precious. I brought them with me from the academy when I left Rainbow Island years ago. Works like these are difficult to replace now."
Lance accepted the booklet.
"This one explains how to control your consciousness and enter your mindscape," Amman said.
"We all know that only after your consciousness enters the mindscape can you use mental power there to construct the rune you wish to form."
"Once you've finished reading, you may try entering your mindscape yourself."
His tone became stern.
"But remember this clearly."
"Even if you succeed, do not begin constructing anything yet."
"Follow my instructions one step at a time. Do not rush ahead."
"If you act recklessly in the mindscape, the consequences can be impossible to predict."
Lance nodded seriously and took the warning to heart.
"Teacher, how long does it normally take someone to enter their mindscape for the first time?"
Amman smiled.
"That depends entirely on the person."
"Some succeed in the blink of an eye."
"Others may need three months."
"But once you enter successfully the first time, doing it again becomes much easier."
Amman arranged a quiet room for Lance on the fourth floor, and Lance sat down to read.
...
The booklet was titled [The Mindscape Within a Nut].
Its author was a wizard named Clenfield.
The brief notes about the author were enough to show that Clenfield had studied the mindscape and mental power in extraordinary depth.
"A wizard specializing in the School of Necromancy?"
Lance gave a dry laugh.
"No wonder he understood the mindscape so well."
Given the detached nature of many wizards, Lance did not want to imagine how many human brains Clenfield might have dissected before producing this thin little work.
[The Mindscape Within a Nut] was written in Gulun.
According to Amman, Gulun was widely used throughout the modern wizarding world.
The language possessed a relatively small vocabulary, but its words were extremely precise.
As Lance read, he had Fox record the entire book.
In the text, the great necromancer Clenfield compared the outer boundary of the human mindscape to the shell of a nut.
For human consciousness to enter the mindscape, it first had to find and pass through a gap in that shell.
After all, consciousness already resided within the brain.
The mysterious mindscape was not truly far away.
Time passed slowly.
The booklet contained barely more than a dozen pages, yet Lance spent most of the day reading it from beginning to end.
When he finally closed it by reflex, he looked up in surprise.
Night had already fallen outside.
Moonlight Tower was fitted with luminous stones for illumination, so darkness was no problem.
Amman, however, had disappeared somewhere in the tower.
Lance called for him twice and received no answer.
According to the book, the human mindscape really is like a nut.
To enter it, consciousness only needs to locate a gap in the shell.
After all, human consciousness already exists inside the brain. The mindscape isn't truly far away.
Lance placed the booklet on the table and reviewed its contents in his mind one more time.
Perhaps because of his transmigration, his mental energy felt unusually abundant.
He had spent the entire afternoon reading, yet he felt no sleepiness at all.
Instead, he was eager to try the method for himself.
Teacher said I could attempt to enter the mindscape.
So I'll try.
Following the method described in the book, Lance closed his eyes and concentrated.
Silently, he recited a word.
"Stukara..."
Darkness filled his vision.
Nothing happened.
Lance scratched his head and tried again.
This time, he gathered every bit of his concentration onto a faint point of light barely visible within the darkness.
A wave of dizziness passed through him.
Lance gritted his teeth and pushed away every distracting thought.
"Stukara..."
"Stukara..."
In an instant, something changed.
His consciousness seemed to transform into a fish swimming through a deep sea.
The darkness that had previously seemed flat unfolded into a vast three-dimensional space.
Lance found himself suspended within it, able to move upward, downward, and in every direction as naturally as swimming.
So this is my consciousness.
My thought itself.
Curious, Lance moved deeper into the darkness.
Strangely, he felt completely comfortable there.
Even though no light was visible ahead, the darkness carried a profound sense of familiarity.
...
'This should be it.'
A vast shell appeared before him.
Lance circled it several times, searching carefully.
Before long, he found a tiny crack.
He slipped through it.
Light exploded around him.
The sensation was indescribably strange.
A vast golden space opened before Lance.
It seemed enormous, yet somehow he could still perceive its boundaries.
Countless golden points drifted and danced through the space.
Lance counted roughly.
There were more than two hundred of them gathered within his mindscape.
'Is this my mental power?'
He regarded the floating lights uncertainly.
When he focused his consciousness on them, each golden point responded obediently to his will.
'Fox, can you detect what I'm seeing right now?'
Lance asked the question silently.
[No.]
Fox's response came at once.
[Master, your consciousness is currently located deep within your brain.]
[This region remains beyond the reach of Zhongxin Technologies' scientific understanding. Fox has no authority to enter it.]
Lance understood.
The mindscape was one of the most mysterious and important regions of a human being.
It was hardly surprising that even Fox could not reach it.
The drifting golden points were Lance's mental power.
Now that he had entered his mindscape, his next task would eventually be to arrange those points into a specific order and shape, constructing a spell rune.
After that, he would need to reinforce the rune day after day.
Once it became completely stabilized within the mindscape, the spell would truly become his.
And the first rune Lance needed to construct was the rune of Lesser Meditation.